This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Those who know me know that I was a fan of what retired late night TV host David Letterman often did, which was to propose a Top 10 List.  It summarized the status of various issues in simple, yet memorable, words, usually with a humorous twist.

So, below, I produce my own Top 10 List of Lobby Suggestions. 

Not sure how memorable they are, nor humorous, but they got me through about 40 years of dealing with public policy in Oregon, including 25 as a registered state lobbyist, built upon 15 years as a state government manager with responsibility to manage legislative relations for various state agencies.

I used these suggestions repeatedly over the years and, while not magic answers, they stood the test of time. 

• Identify legislative champions on an issue-by-issue basis.

To promote Port of Portland Columbia River channel deepening, for instance, I only had to cultivate three champions in the House and one in the Senate.  Each was a key member of the Legislature’s budget-writing committee, the Joint Ways and Means Committee.  So, they were well-positioned to lead channel deepening approval – and it occurred in a welcome development for the regional economy.

Of course, I also had Governor John Kitzhaber as a supporter. 

In another example, former Senator Betsy Johnson became a champion for me and for Providence Health System during the hugely controversial proposals to tax hospitals and health insurers.  She was the only official who supported the “deal” we struck officially before the taxes were imposed; all other public officials who signed off did not honor it – which underlines how difficult it is to cut a deal that lasts with the Legislature.

• Tell stories to prod understanding.

For the Port of Portland, I was able to lead an effort to gather evidence to justify calling the Port of Portland the “Port of Oregon,” thus illustrating the statewide benefits of the Port’s out-bound and in-bound maritime services.  The tactic proved to be critical in justifying money to deepen the Columbia River channel.

For Providence, doctors and nurses helped me deliver real-world messages about medical services, even as they advocated for more funding for the state-federal Medicaid program for low-income citizens.

For Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), with help from Oregon’s best journalism outfit, OPB, I was able to explain what it meant to “go dark” in rural Oregon, which at the time, was a major threat.

• Know your audience, including how and why legislators won election.  Plus, visit legislators on their home turf, not just at the Capitol in Salem.

• Identify legislators who know the smart middle and can lead everyone to it when “yes” or “no” are not possible.  Recognize that the zeal for the perfect is often the enemy of the possible. 

Former Senator Neil Bryant is my best example.  At my request, he led the successful effort to create a special “immunities section” in Oregon’s assisted suicide law, which had passed twice at the polls without such a section – and the change was important to Providence which wanted to make sure it didn’t have to participate in a questionable practice, though the deal required “referral” out to providers of the now-legal assisted suicide law.

• Recognize the importance of this ethic — “your word is your bond.”  Don’t cash it in.  If you do, you lose what you cannot afford to lose – your credibility.

If I had to change a position I had enunciated on behalf of a client, when I conveyed the change to those to whom I had spoken earlier, the corrective action increased my credibility.

Truth and honesty mattered, sometimes more even than the policy rationale for a piece of legislation.

• Recognize that solid lobbying rests on the discipline of conveying a series of positive impressions one at a time, not assuming you will succeed with one message.

In one example, I employed multiple contacts, including with then Senator Kate Brown, to advocate that a proposal to expand Oregon’s certificate-of-need law, promoted for some reason by public employee unions, did not become law because it would have increased health care costs, including for union employees.

• Build coalitions because working with others is usually better than working alone. 

There was a strange one for Hewlett-Packard.  I joined environmental lobbyists to support a ban on field burning.  For H-P, the issue was that smoke from field burns, as it engulfed power lines, often resulted in power outages, bad for the chip maker in Corvallis.  To emphasize, I joined environmentalists on this issue alone, not on the full extent of their lobbying agenda.

• Understand the intricacies of the legislative process and capitalize on its aspects. 

Arrive early at the Capitol every day.  Stay late every day.  Recognize the very personal nature of lobbying in Oregon in contrast, say, to D.C.   You will end up talking to all 90 legislators, plus the governor.  Recognize the need, as well, to talk with state agency officials.

• Make sure those clients you represent don’t turn your stomach.

There are three cases in my history where I failed and, remembering those cases, I still throw up – (1) advocating for establishing a bail bond program in Oregon; (2) advocating for health insurance interests in Washington, D.C. who wanted CFM to oppose a threat from anti-insurance interests, but there was not specific threat at the time in Oregon, so it became impossible to energize health insurance supporters; (3) being asked to promote a major car race track in Boardman on behalf of a client that wanted CFM “to open its rolodex” to promote the proposal; when that kind of stupid request came, we did not accept the client. 

Further, back when I was at CFM, we had a generally understood agreement that, (a) staff would not have to work with a client with whom they disagreed strongly; and (b) if opposition was wide enough among staff, we would not accept a client.  Plus, partners had their own “no” clients, with which staff agreed, including tobacco companies.

• Adhere to two standards.

Those that are part of the Capitol Club Code of Conduct are critically important, as are statutory ethical standards managed by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission.  [And, in the spirit of full disclosure, I am a current member of the nine-member Commission.]

So, there you have it, my lobby suggestions.  They served me well in my professional life and, if you think about, some of them apply to general life, as well.